Opinion: The United Nations must take action on the ongoing genocide in Myanmar

by Boris Epshteyn, Chief Political Analyst

A Rohingya Muslim girl cries as she waits squashed against other children to receive food handouts distributed to children and women by a Turkish aid agency at Thaingkhali refugee camp in Ukhiya, Bangladesh, Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2017. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed alarm over the plight of Rohingya Muslims in remarks before Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders from a Southeast Asian bloc that has refused to criticize her government over the crisis.(AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)

EDITOR'S NOTE: Boris Epshteyn formerly served as a Senior Advisor to the Trump Campaign and served in the White House as Special Assistant to The President and Assistant Communications Director for Surrogate Operations.

WASHINGTON (Sinclair Broadcast Group) - I want to talk to you about Myanmar. It is a country in Asia and people there are dying.

Specifically, the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’s northwestern state of Rhakine have been targets of what appears to be genocide.

A recent story by the Associated Press confirms that dozens, maybe hundreds, of people were buried in mass graves in one village in Myanmar. The descriptions are haunting. Human beings piled on top of one another in dirt holes. Their faces and hands burned by acid. Some had their heads cut off.

This is not a scene from the Crusades or even the horrors of the Holocaust. This is right now, present time.

There is a huge humanitarian problem as a result of the persecution in Myanmar. Over 700,000 people have fled to Bangladesh.

The United States has designated Myanmar as a country of particular concern under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. The United States has also instituted sanctions against one of the leading military commanders of Myanmar.

The United Nations Security Council has condemned violence but has not taken any action beyond that.

Here is the bottom line: now, in the 21st century, the international community cannot allow for human beings to be slaughtered. The United Nations has not been successful at much. If it is to continue to be taken seriously as an international organization, the UN has to do more to protect the Rohingya Muslims who are in Myanmar and who have fled the country.